The present invention relates generally to farm implements and, more particularly, to an apparatus for retaining fluid hoses to the frame of a farm implement.
Pre-plant fertilizer implements, such as the Case New Holland Nutri-Placer 940, are designed to apply fertilizer and specifically anhydrous ammonia during seed bed preparation. The fertilizer implement generally consists of a tool bar or main frame that can be hitched to a tractor or other towing vehicle. Working tools, or combinations of working tools, such as shanks, coulters, knives, banders, and the like, can be mounted to the main frame and are designed to manage crop residue, improve soil tilth, and band plant food in the root zone. As the working tools are pulled through the soil, fertilizer, such as anhydrous ammonia, is routed from a tank hitched to the trailing end of the implement to fertilizer outlets integrally formed or mounted adjacent the working tools.
Farming practices continue to demand larger (“wider”) implements to reduce the time needed to cultivate or prepare or plant a seedbed. This is also true of fertilizer applicators or implements. For instance, it is not uncommon for a fertilizer implement to have more than twenty working tools. The aforementioned Nutri-Placer 940, for example, can be fitted to have more than fifty shanks on fifteen inch centers across its sixty-five foot frame. A fertilizer hose is typically routed to each working tool and to ensure fertilizer consistency (“even application”) across the width of the implement, each hose is preferably the same length. This can result in several hundred feet of hose being routed from the fertilizer tank, which is typically towed behind the implement, to the working tools.
It has been generally desirable to hold the hoses in place, i.e., attach or otherwise secure them to the implement frame itself. In the past, this has been accomplished by using nylon or plastic locking cable straps (“cable ties”). Specifically, at various points along the length of the hoses, a cable tie is wrapped around a frame member of the implement as well as the hose, and cinched tight. The cable ties are typically large enough to allow multiple hoses to be bundled together and held in place as a single unit. This conventional approach works reasonably well when first assembling the fertilizer implement; however, after some usage and with some modest aging, the cable ties degrade and can fail. The ambient temperature changes and the relatively constant exposure to sunlight can cause the cable ties to deteriorate, become brittle, and break. As a result, the hoses can become loose. In some instances, the loose hoses can hang below the implement frame and come into contact with the field surface and the crop stubble thereon as well as pavement during transport. This can result in the hoses pulling further away from the frame and breaking other cable ties or becoming damaged themselves. If the hose is breached or pulled away from either the working tool or the supply tank, the fertilizer could spew from the hose potentially resulting a substantial loss of the fertilizer. Other attempts at improved retention of the hoses have included providing a clamp that clamps down onto the hose. The clamps are effective in retention but are time-consuming to install and limit slack along the length of the hose.